


secrets kept

by demistories



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Identity Reveal, Remix, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 09:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8707318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demistories/pseuds/demistories
Summary: Alya skidded to a stop in front of an alleyway, seeing the red superhero ducking inside. Breathing heavily, she gave herself half a moment to compose herself before speaking up. “Ladybug, are you alright?”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SamanthaGirlScout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamanthaGirlScout/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Keeping Secrets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7188056) by [SamanthaGirlScout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamanthaGirlScout/pseuds/SamanthaGirlScout). 



> i've never done a remix before and it was definitely an interesting experience and i had a lot of fun doing it! if there are any more of these in the future i'd definitely participate! i did a pov switch because...well honestly i just really love alya. like a lot. but this was my first time writing her pov which was so much fun and i loved it
> 
> enjoy~

Alya was proud of herself for slipping away from the house to catch yet another akuma attack on video. Ladybug fighting  _ without _ Chat Noir? Earlier that week, that would have been one for the history books. Three akuma attacks later, it wasn’t as novel an idea. Still, that first attack that Ladybug fought alone had been groundbreaking and would  _ definitely _ be in a history textbook one day. And those glossy, high res pictures would be taken directly from the Ladyblog. Alya was sure of it. No one else had a talent for finding angles like she did. Sure, it usually involved breaking a few laws, climbing onto dangerous structures, and getting into dangerous situations, but it was worth it. 

Alya might not care much for her own safety, but Ladybug’s was a different story entirely. 

Ladybug was  _ struggling _ and that was  _ terrifying _ . Alya was a proud defender of Chat Noir — if Ladybug said that Chat wasn’t a sidekick, he wasn’t a sidekick — but how much Ladybug and Chat helped each other in battle had never been more obvious. Ladybug was getting thrown into walls more often than Chat Noir ever was and she was barely holding back the akuma. 

Alya found herself unable to add her usual commentary as she scrambled to get a continuous live video feed, sprinting after the action as fast as she could. 

She only let herself relax when the akuma was freed and everything was restored. She signed off the of the stream quickly, promising to post stills on the blog later, before turning off the video and hurrying off to find Ladybug. Ladybug had  _ not  _ looked okay. Ladybug hadn’t swung off after the battle, she’d ran. And that was definitely not a good sign. 

Alya skidded to a stop in front of an alleyway, seeing the red superhero ducking inside. Breathing heavily, she gave herself half a moment to compose herself before speaking up. “Ladybug, are you alright?” 

Ladybug whirled around, eyes wide and shoulders tense. Her eyes darted to the phone in Alya’s hand. 

Alya shrunk back a little. Whoops. Sneaking up on a superhero, not her best move. 

“Of course!” Ladybug smiled sheepishly and in the most unconvincing way possible. It reminded Alya of when Marinette tried, and failed, to lie. “I was just about to head out was all. Bye!” Ladybug pulled her yoyo off her belt and threw it high. Instead of catching it on something and swinging away or returning it to her hand, it fell to the ground with a clatter. 

Alya stared at the yoyo as the string of it fell on it in a gentle pile. “Uh—” 

Ladybug wobbled on her feet, like she was about to fall over. 

Alya rushed forward to steady her. “You look like you’re in bad shape,” she said, labeling that as the understatement of the century. She was pretty sure that Ladybug was about to drop from exhaustion and that was  _ not _ happening on her watch. Alya gave Ladybug a quick once over. She didn’t know much about the superheroes or their powers, more than most people and less than she’d like, but she did know that Ladybug and Chat never looked like that after battle. Ladybug’s earrings only had four dots left. “And you’re about to detransform too.” 

The panic was clearly written on Ladybug’s face and Alya couldn’t blame her. The situation was less than ideal. 

Alya quickly ran a list of options in her mind before settling on the one less likely to end with the most consequences. “Look,” she said, tugging Ladybug’s arm over her shoulder so she could better support her. “I imagine that you don’t want to go to the hospital because then your identity would be revealed, but I can tell that you need to rest before you try to go anywhere. My house is close by and I could take you there to hang out until you’ve recharged. Then you can head home, okay?” Alya chewed on her lip for a second. “I know I’ve been trying to expose your identity for a while now, but I promise I won’t do anything to jeopardize your identity.”  

Ladybug studied Alya carefully, despite the clear exhaustion in her eyes. Alya wondered if this was what objects felt like when she was using Lucky Charm. 

_ Beep _ . 

Three dots. 

Ladybug sighed. “Fine, but give me your phone.” She held out a hand. 

Alya nodded and handed it over. That was understandable. Plenty of people would take advantage of the situation, being careful was better than being exposed. 

Ladybug flipped the phone over, inspecting it for a moment before she powered it down completely. 

Alya took that as her cue. “C’mon, you don’t have much time.” She ducked out from Ladybug’s arm and checked to make sure Ladybug could walk on her own. Then she grabbed Ladybug’s hand and started dragging her towards her home as quickly as she dared. She brought them through back alleys and sidestreets to keep Ladybug out of sight. 

They arrived at the apartment complex with a minute left. Alya had never been more relieved to be home. 

She hurried Ladybug up to the apartment, opening the door and slamming it behind them. A waft of delicious-smelling food passed over them and the sounds of her mother in the kitchen filled her ears. 

Alya’s stomach growled, but that wasn’t the priority.

“Alya? Is that you?” her mother called from the kitchen. 

“Just play along,” Alya muttered to Ladybug. She yanked open the closet door and grabbed a blanket out of it. They were almost to her room but she didn’t want to take any risks. She promised not to compromise Ladybug’s identity and she was a woman of her word. She threw the large and heavy blanket over Ladybug’s head. “Yeah. It’s me!” she shouted back. 

“How did Ladybug hunting go?” 

Of course despite Alya’s best effort, her mother knew she wasn’t in her room doing chemistry. Alya wasn’t sure why she tried to hide her escapades anymore. She started pushing Ladybug closer to her room. “It was okay, but I didn’t get any good shots. Ladybug and the Thyme Master got away too quick. By the time I got there, the akuma victim and Ladybug were both gone!” 

It was a good thing her mother was too busy to consistently check the Ladyblog. 

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Alya swore under her breath as her mother’s voice got closer. Not good not good not good. Alya tugged on the blanket to make sure it was completely covering Ladybug before whirling toward the doorway to see her mother standing in it. “Who’s that?” Her mother motioned to the blanket. 

Alya scrambled for a believable lie. “Oh, just a friend of mine from school. You remember Marinette, right?” 

Her mother raised an eyebrow. “Do I? Of course I remember her. You’ve claimed her as your best friend, haven’t you?” Alya smiled weakly. “ _ Why _ is she covered in a blanket like that? She’s going to suffocate.” 

Okay. So the blanket worked better in theory. “She was cold when I ran into her after the attack,” Alya explained, the words falling out of her mouth like water over a waterfall. She could feel her logic going down the drain. “She was kind of freaked out by everything so I brought her home so that she could calm down before I walked her home.” 

Her mother kept her face empty of emotion, which told Alya she was unconvinced more than anything else. “Alya, that’s very nice of you, but won’t her parents be worried?” 

“I-it’s okay, Madam Césaire,” Ladybug peeped up through the blanket. Alya had to stop herself from jumping in surprise. She knew Marinette knew Ladybug, but she didn’t know they were close enough for Ladybug to mimic Marinette’s voice. “I texted them to let them know where I was headed.” 

Alya tried not to look at the blanket too strangely while her mother considered them. 

_ Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! _

Alya’s mother frowned at the blanket and Alya resisted the urge to swear  _ very loudly _ . 

“Ahh! That was them saying that it’s okay for me to stay!” Ladybug said quickly. 

Her mother pursed her lips. “Alright, well how about you stay for dinner? I’ve made plenty.” 

Alya cursed silently. “Sounds great, mom!” she said, spinning Ladybug toward her room and shoving her forward. “Just yell when you’re ready!” She slammed the door shut behind them and leaned against it, breath and tension rushing out of her body. 

Ladybug dropped to the ground. She curled up and hid herself entirely in the blanket. 

Alya sighed and leaned her head back against her door as her heart rate evened out. Hiding Ladybug in her room was something that had never been on her bucket list, but now she could check it off. 

“Alya?” Ladybug asked softly. “This is a really weird request, but do you have any cookies? I promise that I’ll replace them later, but right now I need some.” 

“Uh…” Alya shook her head. “Sure!” She pushed off the wall and went over to her desk. She swore she had some around somewhere… If she found them, it would save her a trip to the kitchen and another weak explanation. “I think that—” She rummaged through the growing piles of papers from class and research before finding them between her history book and an old review packet. So that’s where that was. “Here we go! Sorry, they’re a little stale since my friend Marinette gave them to me last week, but they should still be good. If you need fresher ones I could ask her to bring some over or—” 

“That’s fine,” Ladybug interrupted. She wiggled an arm out from out of the blanket and reached her hand out. 

Alya opened the tupperware and put a few cookies into Ladybug’s hand. She watched with mild amusement as Ladybug pulled her arm back in and went back to huddling under the blanket. 

Alya made herself comfortable on her bed and pulled out a maths assignment. She could give herself the illusion of productivity as she waited. She usually gave herself the illusion of productivity anyway. “How long will it take for you to recharge?” she asked. She tapped her pencil against her lips as she plans. “I figure that whenever that happens I can sneak you out past my mom and just say that my friend Marinette went home.” 

“It’s going to be a while, I think,” Ladybug answered. She sounded disappointed. There was a soft thump as the blanket pile leaned against the bed. 

Alya understood Ladybug’s unhappiness with the situation but that didn’t change the fact that she bit her lip and looked away. She wanted Ladybug to enjoy being around her. Sure, Alya ran a fanblog and tried to unmask her, but she had good intentions, right? It wasn’t  _ wrong _ of her to want to be Ladybug’s friend. Was it? 

Alya shook off the thoughts. She’d deal with them later. “Well… I guess I could hide you in my closet until you’re able to leave? I mean, that’ll be kind of hard, but I think I can make it work somehow. If you need to stay over, I can let you sleep in my bed. I’m sure you’re exhausted.” She didn’t mention the fact that she’d spent many nights asleep at her desk or on her floor. She was used to it.

Ladybug was silent for a long moment. 

Alya twiddled her pencil between her fingers as she waited for a response. It was kind of weird for her to offer Ladybug her bed but they were sort of out of options. 

“Hey…Alya?” Ladybug asked slowly. 

“Yeah, Ladybug?”

“I… I don’t think that I’ll be able to go home tonight… And I don’t see any way for you to fool your mom into thinking that I left…” 

Alya sighed. She could tell Ladybug was right. She could hear the heavy exhaustion in Ladybug’s voice. And really, it was just relentless optimism that had made her believe she could somehow convince her mom that ‘Marinette’ left. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. She scooted off of her bed and onto the floor. She reached her hand out and put it on the blanket. “I didn’t mean to get you into a situation like this,” she apologized. “But you looked like you were going to pass out and I didn’t want you to get hurt.” 

“It’s alright,” Ladybug said after a pause. She sighed. “I’ve actually been debating telling you who I really am for a while now.” 

Alya inhaled sharply, yanking her hand off the blanket. Her mind went completely blank. “Y-you have?!” 

“Yes.” The firmness of Ladybug’s answer was the most validating thing Alya had ever heard. “I mean, you were the first person to believe in me and I wouldn’t be fighting as hard as I am if it weren’t for your encouragement. And, even though you really want to know who I am, you still respect the fact that I want to keep my identity a secret.” 

Alya nodded like Ladybug could somehow see the motion. Mostly nodded because if she didn’t nod, her next option would have been screaming. 

“You probably don’t remember it too well anymore, but back at the beginning of all of this I was really nervous.” The blanket shifted. Alya remembered. In that first battle alone, Ladybug had transformed from a scared teenage girl to…well,  _ Ladybug _ . “In fact, I almost gave up when I messed up by not cleansing the akuma the first time. I really didn’t think I was good enough to do any of this superhero stuff. But you were there, cheering me on. It felt so good to have someone who believed in me. And for that, I’d really like to thank you.”

“You didn’t betray my trust on the way over here, but I’m still wondering if I can tell you who I really am,” Ladybug admitted. “There’s so much danger that knowing this would put you in. Hawk Moth might target you if he suspects that you might know who I am. And there’s the possibility that Chat would start hounding you for clues too. That cat is far too curious for his own good. And—” 

“Can I be frank, Ladybug,” Alya interrupted. The blanket sort of seemed to nod and she assumed that meant she could. “I’m flattered that you’re concerned, but just like you and Chat, running towards danger is what I do. Sure, I might be put in a little extra danger, but it’s something that I’m willing to do to help you.” 

Personally, she didn’t think that the danger would be too bad. Hawk Moth was maybe a concern, but he didn’t scare her. She would fight Hawk Moth. She’d been told she was a force of nature multiple times. And Alya didn’t think Chat would sink so low as to start interrogating people about Ladybug’s identity. She was willing to take on any and every extra danger to have the honor of knowing who Ladybug was.

“I know that it can be hard to trust a virtual stranger,” she said, “but I can promise you that I won’t tell a soul about who you really are.” 

“Would you even keep it a secret from your best friend?” Ladybug asked softly. 

The question caught Alya off guard. Her immediate reaction was to say ‘of course!’ before she realized she told Marinette  _ everything _ . The two of them didn’t have secrets. Alya sighed. “Yes. She may get a little suspicious when I have to keep things from her, but I’m sure that Marinette wouldn’t mind once she understands that I promised to keep your secret. She hates lying, but if I’m upfront with her about keeping a secret, I think she’ll understand.” 

“Okay,” Ladybug said after a long moment. “I’ll tell you.” Alya inhaled sharply and opened her mouth to say something when Ladybug cut her off. “But first I want you to close your eyes.” 

Alya frowned but shrugged and closed them anyway. “Okay.” She covered her eyes with her heads. “I’ve closed my eyes and covered them so that I won’t accidentally peak.” She tried to hold back her excitement as she heard the blanket move. 

It was only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity before Ladybug said, “Alright. You can open your eyes now.” 

Alya dropped her hands and opened her eyes, blinking in the sudden change of light. When her vision adjusted, she stared at Marinette with wide eyes and a gaping jaw. 

Marinette’s face twisted up before she burst out laughing. 

Alya pointed an accusatory finger at Marinette. “Marinette?!” she shrieked. “You’re Lady— mmphf?!” 

Marinette dove forward and slammed her hand over Alya’s mouth to silence her. 

Smooth, approximately three seconds in and Alya had already come close to revealing Ladybug’s identity to the entire building.

Marinette glared at Alya until Alya held up her hands and nodded. She wasn’t going to scream again. 

Marinette sat back and pulled her hands away. “S-sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “I really  _ wanted _ to tell you, but you know how secret identities are supposed to work…” 

Alya nodded seriously. “Right. If you told the wrong person about it, then Hawk Moth might get your miraculous through them. Or he might use that person against you.” She’d read enough superhero comics to know the consequences. And yet, she’d still gone after Ladybug and Chat’s identities which was…maybe not the best move. “Don’t worry, girl. I totally understand.” 

Marinette let out a sigh of relief, tension rushing out of her body as she sagged against the foot of Alya’s bed. “Exactly,” she said with a small smile. “I really didn’t want to put you in any danger, but I didn’t have any choice besides telling you.” 

Alya winced. That was mostly her fault. 

Marinette leaned even more heavily against the bed. “There’s no  _ way _ I’d make it home right now. I’m way too exhausted…” She trailed off, her voice slow and sleepy. 

“Understandably,” Alya said. “You’ve been going solo this whole week.” She was lucky that there had only been one akuma attack so far. “Where on earth did Chat go?” She had already been planning to give him a piece of her mind for leaving Ladybug alone, but now she was rewriting that speech a bit. 

“He said that his family was going on a trip for about a week,” Marinette mumbled. “He said that he didn’t want to go, but he had no choice because his father was forcing him. I told him not to worry too much because the attacks had been sparse lately. But apparently I spoke too soon.”

“No kidding,” Alya scoffed. “You’ve fought, what, three akuma in the span of five days?” 

“Four, actually,” Marinette corrected. She closed her eyes and curled up around herself. “There was one two nights ago. I just happened to catch it while I was out on patrol. If I hadn’t found it then there’s no telling what would’ve happened the next day when another akuma showed up…” The more she talked, the softer and more laced with sleep her speech became. 

“Why don’t you take a nap until dinner is ready?” Alya suggested. She noticed Marinette had put her phone down on the floor between them. She slid it into her pocket and made a mental note to start slowly adjusting the Ladyblog so she could ease off the whole secret identity search without raising too many red flags. 

“That sounds like a good idea.”   
“You might want to lay down so you don’t get a crick in your neck, okay?” 

Marinette nodded. She dragged herself to her feet and flopped onto Alya’s bed. 

Alya snorted. She tugged Marinette’s shoes off. “Don’t get my bed dirty, Mar,” she teased. 

Marinette mumbled an apology into the pillow. 

Alya picked the blanket up off the floor and covered Marinette with it. She took a long look at her best friend who was sleeping in her bed.  _ Ladybug _ was sleeping in her bed. 

Alya took a deep breath and inched out of the room. She needed to go find somewhere to scream that wasn’t here. Her and Marinette were definitely going to have to talk more about everything later, but Alya was going to give Marinette as much rest as she needed. 


End file.
